Searching EuropePMC

Searching EuropePMC

This doc describes how to use Boolean search to retrieve records from EuropePMC via Application Program Interface (API).

Databases Covered

EuropePMC combines results from the following databases:

PubMed and PMC,
The Agricola agricultural library,
Preprints from 24 different life-sciences-related preprint databases.

Entering a Boolean Query

Boolean Operators can be used to specify the structure of your search.

Basic Boolean Operators

When entering your search terms of interest, use:

AND/OR/NOT to separate terms,
quotation marks to search for an exact term (which also turns off Automatic Term Mapping), and
parenthesis to dictate groupings and priority order

to narrow in on publications of interest. For example,

stroke AND (trevo OR solitaire) AND “modified Rankin Scale”

will retrieve all EuropePMC-indexed publications that contain all of the following in their title, abstract, or keywords:

The word stroke
The word trevo or the word solitaire
The exact phrase “modified Rankin Scale.”

Using Search Fields and Filters

If you want to specify how a term will be interpreted by EuropePMC, specify the field in the following manner: (FIELD:term), using one of EuropePMC's pre-specified fields (or filters), which will narrow how that specific term is interpreted. See the full set of fields/filters enabled on EuropePMC.

Note that this structure is different from that used by PubMed, meaning that a query must be altered before being copied over from one database to the other!

MeSH Fields

Use of MeSH terms in EuropePMC is not automatic but you can limit your search to MeSH or other attached keywords:

Search for (KW:term)

Searching Fields such as Author, Journal, etc.

EuropePMC enables you to specify whether one of your terms is:

Author, by searching for (AUTH:name),
Journal, by searching for (JOUR:name),
Volume, by searching for (VOLUME:number)
Issue, by searching for (ISSUE:number)

Filter by Study Traits

EuropePMC enables searches to be narrowed by the following study characteristics:

Publication type, by searching for one of EuropePMC's supportedpublication types using, for example, (PUB_TYPE:review);
Abstract available, by appending (HAS_ABSTRACT);
PDF Full Text available, by appending (HAS_PDF);
Publication date, by searching for FIRST_PDATE:[YYYY-MM-DD TO YYYY-MM-DD];
Language, by searching for the (LANG:language);
Open-access-only, by searching for (OPEN_ACCESS)

For Publication Date limits, only the Year is required for the filter to function, and for a specific year, you can also search PUB_YEAR:YYYY instead of identifying the whole range.

EuropePMC uses the year “3000” to represent all publications through to the present. So, for example, to search for all studies published from January 1st, 2015 to Present, you can use the simplified FIRST_PDATE:[2015 TO 3000]

Filter by Study Contents

You can also narrow the section of the publication in question that your term will be searched within by specifying:

Title only, (TITLE:text)
Abstract only, (ABSTRACT:text)
Body of the text only, (BODY:text)

Guidance on Search Creation

See also our guidance on the following search creation tips, which match across PubMed and EuropePMC:

Table of Contents